Robert Willett
rwillett@newsobserver.com
RALEIGH
It was a gritty basketball game. It was, at times, a brutally physical game. Every pass seemed challenged, every basket was hard-earned.
It was N.C. State and North Carolina, and the No. 7 Tar Heels proved to be the better team Wednesday night, pulling away in the second half for a 67-54 victory at PNC Arena.
Both teams were 3-0 in the ACC. Both wanted to end the night in first place and leave their rivals beaten and behind them.
Had the Wolfpack (11-4 overall) shot the ball the better and not forced as many shots, it might have been a tighter game. But it missed 19 of its 21 3-pointers and shot 26.9% from the field in the game.
D.J. Horne, the Pack’s leading scorer this year, had a miserable night. He could get little to drop, finishing with six points on 2-of-16 shooting and going 0-3 on 3’s.
Casey Morsell had 12 points and D.J. Burns 11 for the Pack, which plays at Louisville on Saturday.
The Tar Heels (12-3) did all they needed to do to win. Ranked in the top 16 nationally in both offensive and defensive efficiency, UNC got 16 points from R.J. Davis, and kept the Pack from making any sustained offensive surges or get easy baskets in transition — UNC had 18 fast-break points to State’s 8.
The Heels’ Harrison Ingram, the transfer from Stanford, used his quickness around the basket to grab 19 rebounds as UNC closed with a 49-42 rebounding edge. It was the most rebounds by a Carolina player in the long history of the series.
The Heels led 30-28 at halftime as the Pack used various players on Davis, the ACC’s leading scorer, and limited him to five points while Armando Bacot was limited to 10 minutes after picking his second personal foul on a technical.
Three takeaways from the game:
A rough, tough game
One thing’s for sure: the last time the Pack and Heels faced off 3-0 in the ACC, some 50 years ago, it wasn’t nearly as physical a game. Not even close.
This was not a game of finesse. This was a game of bodies crashing into bodies and elbows finding flesh.
UNC’s Bacot picked up a technical foul in the first half after putting a forearm into Ben Middlebrooks side and sending Middlebrooks tumbling to the court. The kicker: the two players were well behind the play as the Heels looked to run in transition.
It also was Bacot’s second personal foul, taking him out the rest of the opening half, limiting him to 10 minutes in the half. And getting an earful from his coach when he came to the bench as Hubert Davis was hot.
Referees Roger Ayers, Pat Driscoll and John Gaffney had their work cut out for them this night as it was apparent early neither team would shy away from contact and would test the whistles.
Bacot and the Pack’s Burns waged a war inside at times. Burns would look to back in with the ball and Bacot would use both arms to beat on his back. Burns made a few shots and Bacot got away with a few whacks to the back.
UNC had just two free throws in the opening half while State had 15. The Pack picked up many of those free throws as players looked to go one on one and drive to the basket. Some fouls were called and some drives resulted in turnovers.
Poise under pressure
The Tar Heels played a pretty poised game, which had to be a product, in part, to playing at Clemson last weekend.
That was a big game for the Tigers. That was a physical fight, as well. The home crowd at Littlejohn Coliseum was aching for an upset.
The Heels won by 10. In the game before that, the Heels won by 13 at Pittsburgh. Going on the road in the ACC can be challenging, but UNC’s trips to Clemson and Pitt prepared them for Wednesday and the come-early-and-be-loud sold-out crowd at PNC Arena.
Nor did the Pack have an edge with its deep bench. Davis used 10 players in the opening half and got contributions from many.
For Pack, a tough one to watch (again)
The Pack’s Horne said he probably watched a replay of last year’s game at PNC Arena — a 77-69 Pack win — about 10 times to get a feel for what the atmosphere might be like Wednesday.
Horne and the Pack will not want to watch the replay of this one. Too many bad shots. Too many botched plays.
The effort was there. The fight was there. But the efficiency was not.
The Heels won a number of the 50/50 battles coaches emphasize. They hit the offensive boards. They made enough shots.
Freshman guard Elliot Cadeau would slip in on a drive for a basket or find the open man. Ingram was all over the boards. Seth Trimble gave UNC some solid minutes. Bacot got going in the second half, his dunk with six minutes left giving UNC a 61-48 lead.
The Pack tried to match the Heels’ team play but couldn’t, not in the second half. All too often it was Horne missing a 3 or Burns trying to muscle inside or Taylor trying to make something happen but come up empty.
This story was originally published January 10, 2024, 10:23 PM.
